Detail, A mural painting of Suvannamaccha and Hanuman at Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok.
The story of Hanuman falling in love underwater with the mermaid daughter of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, is not a tale one would encounter in Valmiki’s Ramayana. In Southeast Asia though, it is a much beloved story told and retold over many generations.
Unlike the proliferation of mer-people as fantastical creatures in folklore and mythological traditions of other cultures, Suvannamaccha — Suvarnamatsya in Sanskrit — the Golden Mermaid is perhaps a rare example in our storytelling oeuvre. The lack of the scaly, sinewy temptors of the sea in our myths and legends, however, doesn’t mean a dearth of fantastical imagination related to waters, fish and sea animals.
Matsya Avatar of Vishnu, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India, c. 1700-1725 or later, Ink and opaque watercolor on paper, 21.59 x 14.61 cm.
Consider the god Vishnu’s first avatar, Matsya, meaning fish, who warned Manu about the great flood enabling him to rescue his family, the Vedas and the Saptarishi, the seven ancient sages. Matsya avatar is often depicted as a large golden fish, or as you can see in some of the images, with the upper body of Vishnu and the lower body of a fish, reminiscent of a mermaid. In some representations of this avatar, we see Vishnu emerging from the mouth of a giant fish. The second avatar of Vishnu is also associated with the sea. Kurma avatar, referring to a tortoise or a turtle, is an amphibian, leading scholars to believe that the ten avatars of Vishnu aligned with the evolutionary process.
The story of Suvannamaccha that appears in Southeast Asian versions of the Ramayana such as the Reamker, the Cambodian epic poem, and the Ramakien, Thailand’s national epic, is fascinating because it offers a rare recognisable mermaid character. Several murals, Thai silk paintings, illustrations, sepia paper art, sculpture and even paper and cloth charms depict the mermaid daughter of Ravana (Thotsakan in Thai) who isn’t named amongst his children in Valmiki’s Ramayana. And most portrayals show her entangled in amorous embraces with Hanuman, presenting an unlikely love story amidst the canonical events of the monkey king building a bridge to Lanka to help Ram rescue his wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana.
Mermaid Suvannamaccha with Her Husband Hanuman, Khmer empire, Cambodia, c. 14th century, Sandstone, 52.1 x 50.8 x 11.4 cm.
The story begins with Hanuman and his Vanaras (a race of anthropomorphic monkeys) engaged in setting the foundation for the bridge by dropping rocks into the sea. They discover that the very next day, the rocks disappear, prompting Hanuman to dive down to the depths of the sea. They find a band of mermaids stealing the rocks as they are set down. Hanuman pursues the leader of the group and encounters the golden mermaid, Suvannamaccha. He launches repeated attacks on her but she manages to evade him every time, and over the course of this battle, Hanuman falls in love with the enemy’s daughter. And so, he begins to woo her instead, softening his embrace and caressing her instead of attacking, until she too returns his love and they spend a blissful period underwater.
Hanuman Overcomes Sovan Maccha, Traditional Cambodian Dance Show, Golden Mermaid Dance, c. 2016.
Thai folk dance of the Ramayana in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photograph: Evan Silver(2017).
One day, Hanuman asks Suvannamaccha her reasons for deterring his mission of building the bridge and the mermaid tells him that Ravana, her father, had instructed her to do so. When Hanuman explains the reason for his mission — the abduction of Sita by her father — Suvannamaccha has a change of heart and she promises to return all of the stolen rocks. The monkey king leaves thereafter to continue building the bridge, and the mermaid gives birth to his son, Macchanu, another character missing from Valmiki’s Ramayana. Hanuman encounters Macchanu later during a battle with Ravana’s army as an opponent. Macchanu has a vanara’s torso and the tail of a fish, bodily paying homage to his parentage. Mid-battle a divine star reveals that Macchanu is Hanuman’s son leading to a reconciliation. Interestingly, in Valmiki’s Ramayana, Hanuman has a son named Makaradhwaja who is born out of his sweat as Valmiki’s Hanuman remained a celibate for eternity.
This legend is widely popular in Southeast Asia, performed as Robam Sovann Maccha, a traditional dance in Cambodia, from the 7th century, through the Angkor period (802 CE–1431 CE) as a temple ritual, and a famous piece in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia today. This curious reimagination of the celibate Hanuman as a passionate lover reminds us that as cultural, religious and social beliefs and practices traverse the porous boundaries between different regions, we are gifted with a whole world of imagination, retellings and new stories.
This article was originally published by the MAP Academy, an open-access online resource focused on South Asian art and cultural histories.
